Tuesday June 15 Pedros 2010

Although not that clear a very well attended evening - numbers upto 30
Still dodging the clouds we saw
The Moon 3 days old
Saturn
M4 near Antares (Scorpius was an excellent sight rising in the SE )
Omega Centauri
Southern Cross and the "Jewels"
Alpha Centauri
The Double Star in Scorpio ( Graffias )
Trifid Nebula ( the steam from the teapot rising over the Palm trees! how exotic!)
Apart from the Society Dobsonian I bought my small 60mm refractor along - for a few photos of the moon which came out well

Nick tried to shut the meeting down at 9:pm but with little effect - a very busy evening

18 March Pedros 2010

The last meeting on the 16th Feb was cancelled due to bad weather.

However this meeting proved much more successfull though not in large numbers . An additional crowd was supplie dby the Fine Arts Society who were also using Pedros - though our meeting had much less wine!

So as the evening grew dark we initally saw Venus and the Moon. Visiblity was clear though slightly hazy . As the evening progressed some cloud started to come in but otherwsise viewing was acceptable.

Apart from out old Friend the Orion Nebula (M41) we also saw a number of Globular and Open Star Clusters : M42 near Sirius , the fairly large open cluster M35 as discussed in the newsletter in Gemini and my current favorite the Salt and Pepper Cluster in Auriga M37

We also saw two satellites but in particular a nice pass of Lacrosse 5 at Mag 2.8 (predicted)

For a double star we chose Castor which is a tight double of only 4 arc seconds- it was nicely resolved in the 10 inch Dob though

We then spent some time trying to identify the constellations to the south of Canopus - in particular groupings in Carina and Vela which misled some members in thinking we had the False Cross.


After most memebers had made their excuses and drifted away we then saw Saturn, which was the highlight of the evening. Thats the way it goes folks!

Sunday 17th January 2010 Pedros Castle

This was the first general meeting of the year open to the General Public.
We have had two members only evenings since our last public meeting - these were held in an alternative dark site further North. On both occasions good dark skies were seen though the second included cloud cover!

On Sunday however we had a typical tropical clear but hazy sky. Jupiter was seen just before Europa disappeared behind the planet iteslf at around 07:15 PM An Iridum Flare satllite was also seen just after (Mag-1) .

The Orion Nebula was particulary fine tonight allowing high magnification.

As the evening progressed a high amount of dew became more apparent on the view finders as well as a fair bit of "tent" dodging due to the the new Governers visit there the previuos Friday The Andromeda nebula and M41 were not "bagged" though we did manage to see the "Salt and Pepper " nebula in Auriga.

At around 8:30 PM Mars was spotted in the East - some surface features were observed but no sign of any of the polar caps.


Much talk is of the new Meade SX 200 telescope just been donated to the Society , We need somewhere to put it!

Geminids last Night

Fantastic count - over 30 in a few hours with some big fireballs too . It seemed to peak before midnight (11:30PM?) but I also went out at around 6 AM this morning to see another fireball. Its probably the best display Ive personally seen from the Caymans in my 4 1/2 years here On-Island.

November 19th 2009 Pedros Castle

Seeing Conditions:
Started clear with lovely sunset however after dark there was substantial background haze.
The new spot lights in the Castle grounds didnt help either. As the sky darkened a wonderfull large white owl swooped across too.

Jupiter: We were lucky enough to find a predicted transit of the red spot on Jupiter timed for 7:30 PM local time, however there was much debate on whether we could actually see the spot through the 10 inch Dob and haze!

The 4 satellites were clearly seen but as the evening progressed Io disappered behind the planet itself

M31 : Andromeda Galaxy seen easily tonight but a spirited attempt to find M33 failed - too much haze. The same fate for the Ring Nebula in Lyra.

We settled for more obvious objects - The Pleiades and Alderbaran rising in the east.

We saw two unaccounted for satellites but a predicted Meteor 1-4 rocket at Mag 3.7 almost overhead wasnt visible at all Two random meteors were spotted both in the South

Albereo went down well too- a red and blue double star marking the head of Cygnus the Swan.
At one point the laser beams describing the constellations members resembled a scene from Star Wars

Next month promises our old friend Orion


We are starting a new "drive" to recruit memebers- three people officially joined tonight
Plans are to introduce special evenings and newsletters for members - which will not be free after the new year. If anyone is interested in astrophotography let me know at cpcooke@aol.com

Late Fall 2009

The Web/Blog site has been "resting" for a while - a combination of bad weather, and personal matters, however with a new camera and a DIY project involving mirrors (!!) its time to start writing again

Over the summer (July) there was a solar eclipse- Heres a few photos (see at the end of this blog) -I know a few people from the Island made it to China too on seperate "expeditions: but we havent had chance to meet up yet.

Septembers Meeting almost didnt happen due to the bad weather but we set up in the car park instead. Peter Hughes bought along his small refractor and we had excellent views of Sagittarius inspite of the light Lesson... always go into the Castle Grounds

Also In September Richard and I had an attempt to run an Astronomy Course at the College- but the minimum threshold of required attendees failed to materialize.

Octobers meeting was cancelled due to bad weather (though the following evening was very clear)

Since then we had the Orionid Meteor Shower on October 21st - I got up early at around 4:30 AM and saw one..... No moon but again weather wise it was hardly clear.

So as we approach Novembers meeting the skies are shall we say mixed- fingers crossed

Three photos of the Eclipse on July 22 2009 taken from Hangzhou China , most of China was in Cloud and we were lucky. Even here a few hours later we had torrential rain !

For the eclipse itself the skys cleared but it still had a fine haze. At totality the Corona was not visible to any great extent . The photos were taken through a "modest" 60 mm refractor and a small Canon Powershot attached to the eyepiece.

It was certainly the darkest eclipse I have seen due to the length of the eclipse itself - the longest this Century (over 5 minutes!)

March and April 2009

The sky in March was obscured by cloud, although we did go down to the castle.
April's night, while looking just as bad in the early evening, did clear up, allowing us to view the brightest objects in the hazy sky. My attempt at finding the Beehive Cluster was thwarted, however.
A good number of people attended, much to my surprise given the initial conditions.

January and February 2009

Needless to say the meeting itself was a washout- at least it didnt rain.

A few night before however Nick and I managed some good viewing from a "local" back garden. Always entertaining there with lots of small creatures keeping us company.

Nick was very patient with my attempts to webcam a variety of objects through the 8inch scope. Two photos are shown here

- one of venus ( actaully this one is with my ETX a few nights later).

- the other is actually some stars in the Orion Nebula taken that night - goodness knows which ones though.

Mercury Jupiter and finally Venus were quite spectacular over these Months. Even last night (21st Feb) people were finally noticing that "bright star" in the evening sky.

December 30th 2008

The weather finally allowed us a viewing, although the lawn at the castle proved to be unavailable to us.
However, we set up further down the bluff and had a somewhat surprisingly good attendance.

Thanks Nick, Ive been a bit tardy of late updating the logs-, Your comments are very understated! We arrived at Pedros on the night BEFORE New Years Eve with a huge light show rehersal about to start. After some negociating I lost completley - being offered a bill of around $200 and hour for the lighting crew to postpone their tests. So we upped and went up the dirt track further past the castle onto the bluff (cliff) itself . I cant actually remember what we saw that night but it was an excellent evening especially from the point if visibility, and of course no light show Certainly we saw the Andromeda Nebula as Richard and I had a debate on the actual distance in light years!

Some meteors were spotted as well as a couple of satellites. The Orion Nebula was very spectacular I remember too.

Self imposed note - Must try harder to record the events of the night!

Late October 2008

Obscured by clouds.

Beginning of October 08

RAIN OUT

Wednesday 3rd September 2008

The meeting started at 7:30 PM - The sky wasnt promising showing a lot of haze. After comparing this session with last years - there was a lot of objects to beat!

Nick wasnt able to make the evening either but around 5 people turned up in the end including Richard who seemed to say he wasnt going to stay.. We were also joined at close proximity by the Mosqueto Plane, so close infact I actually covered up the Scope to stop unpleasent precipitation on the mirror!!


The early Evening allowed us to see Venus and Mars but no Mercury. Mars was very small (Subsequent evenings were a lot clearer and there was a nice "triangle" of Mercury , Mars and Venus seen for several days)

As the sky grew darker and inspite of the haze the Milky Way became quickly visible and the sky was especially clear in Sagittarius- allowing us to see the Steam from the "Teapot" very clearly

Next up was Jupiter and we were lucky to see Europa appear from "no where".
The Septembers edition of Sky and Telescope shows this as Sept 4 0:43 II.Ec.R.
The 0:43 is easy as its GMT, so - 5 hours gives us 7:43 PM
II stands for Europa
Ec is the object is in Eclipse by Jupiters Shadow
R stands for Reappears!

Also seen was the Red Spot, seen with a good high powered eyepiece and averted vision- but clearly seen all the same! The sky although hazy was obviuolsy giving us very stable viewing conditions

Our viewing then turned to Sagittarius, objects M22 , The Lagoon Nebula M8 were seen, including the Dust lane in M8. A quick trip to the Scorpians tail gave us and the Ptolomys Cluster (M7) and the Butterfly Nebula (M6)


After this we saw The Ring Nebula in Lyra and of course Alberio the famous double star in Cygnus.

A number of sparodic meteors were seen (September Perseids or from Auriga ? ) as were a few satellites waited for and observed.

However the prize of the evening was right at the end- an Iridium Flare at 20:24 PM - at Mag -2 although it seemed brighter. A nice end to the Evening

Monday 4th August - Pedros

I was off Island (Chris) but Nick went down as usual. Inspite of the hazy hot weather good crowd turned up many of them visitors to the Island and a good range of ages too
A successful but dry evening!

Sunday 6th July - Pedros

A Hot Muggy meeting with muggy cloud. Inspite of this we observed Saturn and Jupiter as well as our favorites for this time of the year- the Jewel box and Omega Centauri. Alpha Centauri also resolved well into its apparent binary system.


The Southern Cross was not easy to resolve and it also took us a while to see the Jewel Box.

Last month was definitely the better month to observe this constellation, but we have a teapot to look forward too!!

We also had a quick look at Scorpio but the heat and humidity persuaded us for a finish at Durty Reids

Sunday 5th June Pedros Castle

Nick and I arrived early- the weather looked mixed but started clearing.
After the Moon , Mars and Saturn ( 3 of its moons were visible) a couple of satellites were looked for - one seen!

The Southern aspect this time of the year is very grand, even though there is nearly always a slight haze near the horizon. the aspect at Pedros nearly always gives a good clear dark sky to the South

The Southern Cross (Crux) was clearly seen with the complex Centurus to its left. Alpha Centuari is seen as a nice easy double star (although its far more than that of course).
Also observed were the "Jewel Box" (NGC 4755) and Omega Centauri (NGC 5139) seen tonight with the naked eye.

I was very keen to push my knowledsge to the right of Crux, namely the Constellation of Carina.

Eta Carinae - the Keyhole Nebula has become almost a quest of Holy Grail proportions for me but I still struggle to find it. I did come across the "Southern Pleiades" (IC 2602) and a very nice open cluster ( which is either NGC 3766 or NGC 3532). The low haze won.

After brief refreshment at Durty Reids we re immerged to the car park to see Scorpius fully risen, the stars (Shaula and Lesath) representing the stinger clearly seen high in the sky.

Still no sign of Jupiter rising in the East though

Thursday 8 May 2008 Pedros

Mercury was clearly visible as a disk. The Societies new eyepieces are helping a great deal. Also Observed were

-the moon, slightly different this month as the meeting was a little later in the lunar month
- Mars (disappointing as usual)
- Saturn and at least two moons.

2 satellites were observed.

The weather was as the evening progressed slightly muggy, and visibility was not as good as the early evening had suggested. Having said that we were treated to a fine view of Omega Centauri (and most of Centuraus too!) as well as the Southern Cross, though the Jewel Box is still too low this month.
A thoughtfull discussion then ensued (as always this time of the year) on the "pointers" to the South Pole and where the False Cross was actually located.

The Meeting was adjourned to Durty Reids

April 8th 2008

Early arrivals at the viewing had a chance to see Saturn and the Moon before heavy clouds rolled over. Concerned with the possibility of rain, I packed the "scope away. however, there was a sufficient number of people for some lively discussion, and some naked eye observations as the sky cleared.

Monday 10th March Pedros Castle

Good turn out tonight, almost all the committee! The skies cleared nicely by 7:30, Mike also bought his heavy binos on an even heavier equatorial mounting to add to the fun .

Saturn seems very impressive at the moment inspite of the rings closing up. Recent visitors to the Island (see last months notes) commented on just how stable the air is in the tropics, and is ideal for planetary viewing

Mars also was visible but VERY high up in the Zenith.A good sized disk is still visible with some surface markings in the higher powered eyepeices, though with some flaring of the image.

The Moon also was observed along with an easy target of the open Cluster M41 near Sirius.

After the Plieades we attempted some of the open Clusters in Auriga , we got M36 and M38
Two satellites were observed and one meteor, from its direction it may have been a Leonid

Overall quite a clear night for us at Pedros

February 2008 Extra Ordinary Events,The AGM, ISS passes and a great Lunar Eclipse!

Inspite of a poor Observing night at Pedro this month,

1) the AGM was held on Sunday 17th , The Society continues!!

2) On Monday 18th AND Tuesday 19th thanks to a reminder from Richard the ISS together with the space shuttle made passes across the Caymans, the Monday Evening pass was especially brilliant, first the shuttle and then the ISS crossed thr sky in formation. The ISS seems very bright - much brighter than predicted on "Heavens Above" _-3?). The following evening the pass was much lower in the West and not long after sunset, so it certainly appearred less bright. On Wednseday the Shuttle landed safely in Florida

3) An excellent lunar eclipseon the 20th!

Sunday Feb 11th 2008 Pedros Castle

Poor cloud but started with the Moon., nothing else visisbale not even Mars
Good turn out but not much to see :-(